title: Bullying at school as a predictor of delinquency, violence and other anti-social behaviour in adulthood.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although bullying at school is an important topic, its long-term relation to anti-social development is rarely investigated.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study the relation between bullying in youth and anti-social outcomes in adulthood.
  
  
  METHODS
  A group of 63 males (bullies and victims over-sampled) from the Erlangen-Nuremberg Bullying Study were investigated at ages 15 and 25. Bullying was assessed with the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire. Outcome measures included self-reported delinquency, violence, aggressiveness, drug use, impulsivity and psychopathy. In addition to bivariate correlations, hierarchical regressions were used to control for family and individual risk factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Bullying was a strong predictor of nearly all anti-social outcomes. Physical bullying was more predictive than verbal/indirect bullying. Controlling for family risks and externalising/internalising problems reduced effect sizes, but bullying remained a sound predictor. Victimisation was not related to anti-social outcomes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Bullying seems to be a key risk marker for anti-social development. Therefore, studies on whole-school anti-bullying programmes and child-oriented or family-oriented strategies of crime prevention should be more integrated.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bender
authors.forename: Friedrich
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lösel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D058445:Bullying / Q000523:psychology*; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012574:Schools; D012931:Social Environment; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*